WWE Unforgiven 2003
Heat - Steven Richards vs Maven
JR and King come out and start badmouthing Snow and Coach, they're really giving far too much time to this angle, but anyway Stevie comes out with Victoria looking fine as ever, Maven could do with some new music now he's getting a semi push, but on to the match. Having not seen Raw for god knows how long and only downloading interesting matches I was actually pretty impressed with Maven, he showed some creativity with a couple of spots and didn't seem to need much carrying, and Stevie was good as always. If I remember rightly from TE though, Maven has a pretty decent Moonsault, why doesn't he use it? Maven's new finisher looked a bit sloppy, I don't know whether it was supposed to hit like that or whether he fucked it up but anyway...*1/2, nothing wrong with either mans performance but nothing spectacular and it was very short
Dudleyz vs La Resistance and Rob Conway - Handicap Table Match for Tag Team Titles
Bischoff takes Spike out of the match after his bump but Stone Cold counters by putting the titles on the line. I was thinking how cool the Unforgiven set was when the teams were making their entrances especially the flaming logo, but on to the match. La Resistance go quickly to the heel triple team tactics on Bubba but not enough to make the fiery face comeback mean anything, La Resist come back again with some forgettable offence which makes me realise that no one would give a shit about them if it wasn't for their gimmick, however the gimmick has got the Dudleyz WAY over judging by crowd reaction. D-Von gets wood after the diving groinbutt (sorry, but you can't rant on a table match without one lame joke at the least). Are those new tables? I can't believe I'm paying that much attention to the tablesÉD-Von goes through first followed by a sick bump from Conway through two tables on the outside which was far too close to Spike's two weeks earlier not to have been intentional and Dudleyz hit a slightly crappy looking 3D through a table for the win. Hopefully this'll be the blow off for the feud although I can't really see where La Resist are gonna go from here. Titleless, with no heat and no feud prospects, there only hope seems to be an alliance with Jericho to take on Austin leaving the tag division even more dead than it is now. Slightly disappointing use of the gimmick, none of the foreplay I like to see in table matches, no defensive table breaks and only one "I'm gonna take the table out the way of your move" spot not really enough. **1/4 at a push.
Test vs Steiner - "Services" Match
Our second seemingly never ending feud of the night pits Test against Steiner, if Steiner wins he gets Stacy's services back, If he loses he becomes Test's servant. Test has the major charisma here mocking Stacy's entrance, this gimmick at the least has cemented him with a character he can work with. Sloppy Spinebuster from Steiner starts things off, and he takes control before things spill outside allowing Test to use the hide behind the woman spot, however it backfires as Stacy slaps him in the face, DQ ref? Steiner takes him back in and YAY! A sleeper, Steiner actually hits a pretty nice Northern Lights Whip but spoils it by following it with is ugly Belly to Belly. Steiner counters the Pumphandle and sets up the Tiger Bomb, I was hoping for another Stumble Bomb, but I only got a Can't Quite Pick You Up BombÉshame. A few Stacy help Steiner spots follow until one backfires and Test hits What's that all Aboot for the win. Right man went over if they want to keep the feud although Stacy turning heel would of freshened up the story. **
HBK vs RKO - Legend vs Legend Killer
I had a modicum of expectation for this match although I was hardly expecting fireworks, with Michaels past it and Orton still green. HBK comes out mocking RKO and Flair in typical HBK style and we start off with some chain work and a stand off, pretty generic stuff but nice to see the fans getting the hang of the "cheer when they stop" idea, took Ôem a while. RKO uses the Michaels skin the cat technique before channelling the spirit of Ric Flair and going for a double axe handle which is obviously countered. -Here Sky Lost Picture For A Couple Of Minutes (Could You Not Have Done This A Few Matches Later?)- When we come back the momentum is shifting back and forth until Flair makes his presence known with some fun interference. This allows RKO to start working the shoulder, which he does very competently for a good couple of minutes, nice to see some body part work in a WWE match but it contributes little to the psych of the match, shouldn't Orton be working the neck? Anyway Michaels doesn't sell after Orton stops working the shoulder, but I don't need to say that do I? Michaels kicks out of an RKO after a delayed cover, there goes any chance of a clean finish, but hopefully Shawn will still put him over right? Right? Elbow Drop and SCM gets the three count on Orton but Flair puts RKO's foot on the ropes and hands him the brass knucks for just about the worst way to get Randy over possible. Decent story to the match at first, Orton matching up wrestling wise, losing out to experience and gaining advantage again by interference but this match was supposed to be the culmination of his recent push, he should have gone over clean(ish) but he's now no more over than he was before. Enjoyable match, booking quarrles aside. ***
Gail/Molly vs Lita/Trish
Again having not seen Raw for a long, long time, I was pretty impressed with Trish here, her version of the Matrix dodge is pretty swank, the combination headscissors headlock takeover was nice and she even busted out a version of Sliced Bread #2 as a counter for the Dragon Sleeper. Aside from that the match was just one big face in peril dynamic, with Lita getting cut off beforehand and taking a bump into the apron that made her lip just utterly piss out blood. Lita gets the hot face tag, comes in, cleans up and hits a DIRTY looking moonsault for the finish. Pretty enjoyable womens match actually, looks like the divison isn't doing as badly for itself as I thought it was. *3/4
Shane vs Kane - Last Man Standing Match
Here we go, the match everyone is gonna love, that is really gonna suck. I hate it when people call Shane a spotfest, he's an insult to the people who can actually work that style of match, Shane will hit one or two spots in a match and then do fuck all for the rest of the match, hardly a "fest" is it? So we have fiery underdog face against unstoppable monster heel in this match, so you have Kane generally dominate with just enough time for Shane to hit a swank spot and take a huge bump for the winÉright? Wrong. Other than a couple of weapon shots, a powerslam and a chokeslam, Kane does next to nothing in this match and just gets dominated, yes he wins the match, but he doesn't go over Shane, Shane goes over himself by missing a huge leap from the top of the Unforgiven stage set up. Not only does this shitty booking severely weaken Kane's gimmick it makes RVD who got beaten clean by Kane look weak. I really refuse to say any more about this match or mention the rather cool Van Daminator on the steps (crap, I just did) because Shane pisses me off so much, Get him the fuck off my TV. Booking aside, I'll give it ** for the spots.
Jericho vs Christian vs RVD - Triple Threat IC Title Match
Pretty interesting set up here with two heels having to altercate in order get themselves that shiny gold strap, I'd have loved to see old school, interesting Christian in this match, but instead I get Kick/Punch/Choke Christian, ah well, hopefully Jericho can carry him through some offence on RVD. After a nice opening which features some nice moonsault spots from RVD this match just seems to lose all its pace, and even the highspots didn't seem to have an pep behind them, I'll give the three of them credit and put that down to the seeming lack of crowd interest though. Heels play the double team game for a bit to long in this match for my liking, interaction between the two of them is by far the most interesting part of this match. Pace picks up a bit towards the end with some cool little spots like the two man Frog Splash and the combination Electric Chair Powerbomb, the most interesting thing Christian has done in a long, long time. He blatantly pins the wrong man after the move though. The best stuff in this match came from RVD and Jericho and even that seemed only slightly above average, overall a pretty enjoyable match with some nice spots but another dumb as shit finish as Christian goes over by getting his knees and a belt up to the 5 star Frog Splash, tactics like that are not gonna get Christian over as a big midcard heel WWE. *** for a pretty decent effort.
JR/King vs Coach/Snow -Winners Announce Raw
Yeah WWE, Screw the most over face in the world getting his shot at the heel who's been running rampant for nearly a year, screw the pretty interesting mid card on the show, the fans are gonna buy the PPV to see this =/. So uh, let me get this straight, no one is calling this match? Did the WWE even think about the problem that would arise? Although I'll admit listening to JR and Coach's shouts from the apron is pretty amusing. As expected King and Snow carry the lions share of this match and actually put on some pretty watchable stuff, a neat bit of psych from King at the start, trying to end things real early as so he doesn't have to involve JR and Snow plays the heel a lot better than I thought he would. Another neat bit of psych as King is able to counter a second backdrop into a piledriver after both Coach and King call it from the outside. Hey, you know what? I'm actually kinda enjoying this, even Coach's introduction to the match doesn't take it that far downhill, once JR comes in though the match goes to all hell really, but screw it, he's not in for long. For the first time in this PPV I get an ending I thought was actually pretty damn cool, if you're gonna have this feud, you might as well give Al and Coach a shot at announcing instead of rendering a months stories useless, and hearing two heels announce could be interesting, using it as a boost for the Jericho/Austin feud was nicely done as well. I couldn't be more shocked by how average this match was (and I mean that in a good way) **1/4
Goldberg vs Triple H - Title vs Career match.
Well, I guess they've done something right with this match as I'm actually wellÉlooking forward to it isn't the right words, anticipating would be better. Another awesome video to hype this match, with killer lyrical synching, I've really gained an appreciation for the WWE's videos recently. Starts slow with HHH seeming reluctant to get in a fight Goldberg, Goldberg looks to end early with the Spear but HHH hits a nice counter with the high knee. Goldberg shows off his awesome selling ability by clutching his arm in pain after HHH works the leg, otherwise the match was perfectly acceptable if not PPV main event quality. Two quarrels with this match, one minor, one major, the minor is that Goldberg no sold a sledgehammer shot, the major is that they didn't use the drama of Goldberg's retirement nearly enough, he should of at the very least kicked out of a pedigree. The huge problem with this match, if you'll excuse the Goldbergism "Who's Next?" If HHH is taking time out for injury then where are the credible challengers to Goldberg, this feud was nicely done but the booking was a little short sited, Micheals and Flair are past it, Orton isn't ready, the only two possible challengers would be Jericho using his Austin feud as a springboard to Goldberg or a returning Batista. ** for the match anyway.
So there we have it, by no means a bad PPV, but by no means a good one either, consistently average across the board with a couple of *** matches thrown in. Just enough for me to say I enjoyed the PPV and not even the commentators match dragged it down.
In 10 Words: Better Than Bad Blood, Will Be Destroyed By No Mercy
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